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Unable to hear crickets and grasshoppers with my hearing aids

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I haven’t been able to hear crickets and grasshoppers for many years. So, after getting my first hearing aids earlier this year I was looking forward to once again hearing that magical sound of summer! Alas, I still can’t hear them :frowning: My wife tells me she hears them but I hear none at all. I did hear something for a second or two whilst running the other day but that was it. If I play a recording from off the internet I hear it just fine.

What experience do others have?

Bob

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I had the freaky experience of listening to cricket sounds on a summer night and then turning off my aids. The crickets just disappeared (aurally). Completely disappeared. Rammed home just how much hearing loss I have.

I can hear them with hearing aids with . You’re high frequency hearing isn’t that bad. Do you know if your hearing aids were set up with (Real Ear Measurement)? I’d guess that you’re not getting enough gain in the 4-6khz range.

Sure sounds like a tuning issue. As MDB said, your high frequency hearing loss doesn’t seem that bad.
What hearing aids do you wear?

I have Phonak Nathos Auto Micro aids (UK NHS model). It sounds like I need a re-tune. I haven’t actually had a follow up visit since my first fitting session just before COVID hit.

Bob

That is interesting! This year I have asked people around here where the Cicadas, tree frogs, and spring peepers went. I heard them a lot more last year when I had Ambra hearing aids but this year they seem to be very muted and I am wearing Naida M90s. I can hear them when I am close to the source (a nearby swampy area) but not as loud as in the past. I have been told by people who seem to know about things like this that there aren’t as many of these critters this year.

Visiting your is probably best but you can also take online hearing tests or get hearing test and/or tone generator apps for Android and iOS. That allows you to roughly test yourself what’s wrong with your ('s) via playing a chosen frequency directly to an ear vs. streaming it to the same ear through your phone (and have your wife corroborate whether the sound is loud or not). In my case, I’ve had several left HA’s fail as far as external microphone input goes but they stream high-frequency sound just fine even after the microphone input failed.

On the crickets, I guess it depends on the time of year, how wet or dry it’s been, etc. But here in San Antonio, they can be so loud it’s so annoying that while listening to a podcast while walking, I turn off my external mics just so I can adequately hear the streamed sound not overwhelmed by chirping. Hopefully, your high-frequency hearing can be well restored by adequate gain adjustment or , if necessary.

Crickets I think are roughly in the 5k range, my high pitch loss is a little worse than yours and the crickets come in loud and clear for me. You probably dont have enough gain in that range

My Widex used to noise cancel crickets. I had to have them change the setting to that I got more ambient noise, forget what that setting was though. It was irritating, too. We’d go camping, and the Widex would clamp down on those sounds so hard, it reduced the volume of everything and I had the toughest time hearing speech.

That’s interesting Jeff, I did wonder if it could be something like that as other sounds in that frequency range see to be OK.

Bob

I first realized I needed hearing aids when I sat at an outdoor church service and the pastor stopped talking to the kids and asked them what that sound was. My son said “A cicada”. I had heard nothing.

After I first started wearing aids I was startled by the beep when scanning my ID badge at the door to work. I hadn’t known it made any sound.

Now that you mention it I haven’t heard crickets since I was a kid. Hell I’m just happy if I hear people

Sometimes hearing loss can be such a blessing in disguise…A lot of the things people complain about…I don’t think I wanted to hear anyway…My focus is on being able to hear people. I guess other sounds are a bonus. I can hear crickets and other nocturnal animals out here in the country…There are no other noises to block them…

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